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Trial of the Cities
The Trial of the Cities is the task of empowering the Three Immortal Weapons and the ceremony at the Altar of the Cosmos. It is the Fourth Trial set for humankind by the Super-Ancient Beings. History Early History At a currently unknown point in Earth's history, a race of Super-Ancient Beings realised that even after they were gone from the Earth (by extinction, or otherwise departing the planet), there may yet be intelligent life, and so devised a series of trials for such a race to undertake to confirm they were worthy enough to survive the Omega Event. The fourth of these trials came to be known as the Trial of the Cities. The Ancients chose three of their cities, Thule, Ra and Atlas, and left a mysterious blue gem deep with each city's vault which would need to be collected and added to the Three Immortal Weapons of a sword, helmet and mace in order to empower them for a final ceremony. They also created sets of bronze and silver guardians to act as obstacles in addition to the Cities' other defences. Furthermore, an altar for a final ceremony to confirm the trials' completion was established within what would later become the Rock of Gibraltar, known as the Altar of the Cosmos. The Super-Ancients arranged it so that a sacrifice would need to be made at the correct time to finish the trial, which would be when the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A-star in the center of the Milky Way galaxy emitted radio waves that would bombard Earth. If the sacrificial ceremony took place during this time, then the radio waves would pass through the sacrifice and travel at great speed towards the center of the universe on a path cleared by the Hydra galaxy. To make the completion of the Trial of the Cities all the more crucial to the next species' survival, the Super-Ancients devised a punishment and left deposits of their greystone powder at six locations around the world. Should the trial fail to be completed, these deposits would be exposed to the world's oceans, which would begin a domino-effect of drying up all sources of water the world-over, turning the Earth barren and leaving all life on the planet to suffer and die of dehydration. Before The Three Secret Cities After the Super-Ancients were gone, the Four Legendary Kingdoms learned about the trials left behind by the Super-Ancient Beings, among them the Trial of the Cities. They were gifted with the Three Immortal Weapons, which they shared among three of their Kingdoms, and discovered the locations of the Three Secret Cities. The Four Kingdoms assigned three men to watch over each one, who would come to be called the Trismagi. When one of the Trismagi neared the end of their life or service, the Four Kingdoms would assign someone to take their place watching over the Cities to ensure they were not disturbed before the trial. Thought the Four Kingdoms vowed to maintain the necessary knowledge for the Trial, they knew most of the relevant information for the Trial of the Cities and the Trial of the Mountains would be revealed to the King of Kings who received the Mysteries at the conclusion of the Third Trial. The Kings whose Champions won the three previous Great Games of the Hydra each received the Mysteries; the last, Zeus, made some notes regarding the Trials on a papyrus in the Word of Thoth, including the prerequisites for the Trial's completion and the punishment for failing. The Kingdom of Land kept the location of the Altar of the Cosmos a secret for themselves since it was within their territory, while the Kingdom of Underworld came into possession of the stone tablet that was a part of the Altar of the Cosmos. Though the Trial of the Cities was known to all members of the Four Legendary Kingdoms, only the Kings of each Kingdom (and few of their closet advisers) became privy to the knowledge that a sacrifice was needed for the trial's overall success. For millennia before the Trial of the Cities was set to begin, the Four Kingdoms made sure that the High Priest of the Cult of Amun Ra, otherwise known as the Oracle of Siwa, continued their bloodline as they considered it the Oracle's responsibility to be the "Supreme Initiate" who sacrificed their life. During the fourth Great Games of the Hydra that precluded the completion of the Third Trial, Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza explained to Jack West Jr how the Ancients' trials were set to test life on Earth, and noted the importance of the Three Cities to the future trials. When the Games concluded with the upheaval to the Four Kingdoms, Jack prevented King Orlando Compton-Jones from receiving the Mysteries, and King Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe noted that meant that all of the ancient knowledge regarding the remaining trials would have to be re-found. As the various groups fled the Underworld, Hades discovered that Orlando and Mendoza had survived, realising that they would soon be heading for the Cities to prepare for the next trial. The Three Secret Cities A few days after the conclusion of the Third Trial, the mission to begin the Trial of the Cities began in earnest. As he joined Jack's team in heading to his New York apartment to obtain the tablet of the Altar of the Cosmos and the Helmet, Hades explained what he knew regarding the Trial of the Cities and showed them the Zeus papyrus, while Alby Calvin was able to determine when the Trial needed to be completed by. However, the group was interrupted as they tried to retrieve the artifacts, with Orlando, Mendoza and Sunil Malik taking them instead. Already in possession of the Sword, Orlando set Malik the task of locating the long-long Trident before setting out for the Cities. As they had lost Hades and the tablet, Jack and Lily West infiltrated the Gallerie dell'Accademia to view a full rubbing copy of the tablet, only to discover that, while Thule was the first City where the trial would begin, it was suggested that allies were needed at all of the Cities since activating Thule would activate the Guardians of all of the Cities. As Orlando was unaware of this and in a hurry to complete the trials, Jack's team set about trying to locate all of the Cities and the Trident so that they could help to ensure the Trial of the Cities wasn't failed. Indeed, unaware of the mistake he was making, Orlando prematurely initiated the trial at Thule and left Mendoza and his Swiss Guards to empower the Sword, only for the uninformed Cardinal and his men to find themselves caught between the Bronze and Silver Guardians. Meanwhile, the Trismagi Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster and Dion DeSaxe had the Knights of the Golden Eight capture Lily for the Oracle of Siwa's role of sacrifice on the Altar of the Cosmos. After Jack's team retrieved the locations of the Cities from Sir Francis Drake's coffin and recovered the Mace from Poseidon's tomb, they made their way to Thule, Ra and Atlas. With Sphinx threatening Lily's life, Jack and Aloysius Knight agreed to empower the Mace and return it to him. As each group from Jack's team came up against the Guardians, Jack realised the Weapons were the key to getting past them, and so his people were reach the inner vaults of the Three Cities. However, as soon as the blue gems were added to the Weapons, Sphinx and Orlando's people took them and made their way to the Altar of the Cosmos. As the Kings of the Four Kingdoms gathered at the Rock of Gibraltar for the sacrificial ceremony to finish the Trial of the Cities, Sphinx arrived with Lily and initiated a coup by stabbing Orlando with the Sword while Mendoza killed the Kings of Sea and Sky. Setting the stone tablet in the sacrificial pool and closing Lily inside with the empowered Mace and Helmet, Sphinx proceeded to complete the Trial as the Sagittarius A-star's radio waves hit the Earth and stabbed Lily in the heart with the Sword. With the Oracle's death, the Trial of the Cities was successfully completed. Trivia *Although the Trial of the Cities is the fourth in the Super-Ancients' Age of Trials, it was referred to as the First Trial throughout The Three Secret Cities. *Though no specific time was apparently set for the third trial, the Diverting of the Hydra Galaxy to be completed by, the Trial of the Cities was set to be completed on December 1st of 2016. As the Star Chamber is implied to have opened around mid-September of the same year, and with Arbrahamson's implication that the Hydra galaxy would not destroy Earth until two months from November (January 2017), it suggests that the Super-Ancients intended for the third trial to be completed almost as soon as the Star Chamber opened. **This brings into question why the Four Kingdoms left initiating the Great Games for nearly two months, though with few pieces of information regarding the remaining trials, it may be that they were unaware. **Incidentally, the implied time of impact of the Hydra galaxy with Earth (estimated January 2017) is suggested to occur after the due time for the Trial of the Cities to be completed. Therefore, even if the fourth trial was completed successfully, failing to divert the Hydra galaxy in time would have resulted in the Earth's destruction soon afterwards anyway. Category:The Three Secret Cities Category:Events Category:Ancient Trials